During the first six months of 2017 container traffic was up 17 per cent compared to the same period last year. And that's coming off a banner year, reported the Halifax Chronicle Herald.
Halifax's container terminals last year saw their biggest year since the recession of 2007-2008, when the American economy tanked in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Container traffic at the Port of Halifax spiked 14.9 per cent last year, to 480,722 TEU, compared to 2015.
The port is also receiving the biggest container ships it has ever seen. In late June, the 10,062-TEU capacity Zim Antwerp called on the port's Halterm International Container Terminal.
"At Halterm we have invested and continue to invest in the equipment, people and services required to handle the larger ships that have followed the widening of the Panama Canal," Kim Holtermand, Halterm's CEO, said in a statement.
"The arrival of the Zim Antwerp at Halterm plays to our strengths as a deep-water, big ship international container terminal."
President and chief executive officer of the Halifax Port Authority, Karen Oldfield, heralded the arrival of the Zim Antwerp as marking "the next stage in international shipping along the East Coast of North America."